"Madame, bear in mind That princes govern all things--save the wind." -Victor Hugo, The Infanta's Rose

Sunday, April 08, 2007

One for the record books

I don't often blog about that most mundane of topics -- the weather -- but today was unusual. We've had nice spring-like temperatures during most of the past week, with highs in the 70's and low 80's, which is pretty typical for this time of year in East Texas. So imagine my surprise when I glanced out the window to see this:

The local TV weatherman confirmed it - this is a first, ever. In the entire history of meteorological record-keeping, it has never snowed before in April here. We might occasionally see a flurry once every five or six years or so, but it's always been during the coldest months of December, January, or February.

Today's mini-blizzard is just bizarre, and could perhaps be seen as further evidence of a disruption of global weather patterns. While the popularly-used phrase "global warming" makes most people think of climate change as a uniform temperature increase all over the planet, the reality is much more complex. Coincidentally, just this Friday the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, meeting in Brussels, released its report detailing how species, water supplies, polar ice sheets, and regional climate conditions were already responding to human emissions in the atmosphere. The panel's co-chairman, Dr. Martin Parry, said that widespread effects were already measurable, with much more to come.

“We’re no longer arm-waving with models,” he stated. “This is empirical information on the ground.”

And today, the information on the ground here in Texas was about an inch deep.

PS: This post also marks another historic milestone -- my very first video appearance on the blog. Now you will clearly understand why I got into radio instead of TV.

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Who Writes This Stuff?

Name:Mr. Toast

Location:Texas, United States

Sarcastic, occasionally witty ex-radio DJ/engineer and sardonic observer of life. Though mostly a practical realist, I sometimes see myself as a sensitive romantic dreamer. Other traits: easily amused; fond of tinkering with electronic objects, good food and small furry animals (not necessarily in that order); unable to leap tall buildings, in a single bound or otherwise; always a traveler, never a tourist; housebent, but not broken.